The Toccata was a genre frequently composed, primarily during the Baroque period, much like the fantasy and prelude. Toccatas for keyboard instruments are characterized by improvisatory fast passages. After the Baroque period, this genre was gradually absorbed into other musical forms, and its name progressively faded into obscurity. Schumann composed his Toccata, Op. 7, and Liszt his Toccata, S. 197a; however, these are rare examples among the representative piano works of the 19th century.

It is said that Prokofiev composed his Toccata, Op. 11, in 1912, inspired by Schumann's Toccata. While Prokofiev's Toccata appears to be characterized by repeated notes, the continuous passages of octaves and chords indeed evoke the influence of Schumann's Toccata.

The piece builds to a climax, moving from sections characterized by dense sonorities, where the left and right hands occupy overlapping or leaping, crossing registers, to open sonorities that expand with contrary motion across the full range of the keyboard, concluding with a five-octave glissando.